Vo Thi Tuyet Nga, a baby-sitter at Dong Da Primary School in Binh Thanh district in HCM City, cannot imagine that one day she will have a motorbike to replace her old bicycle. The salary she gets for the job of a teacher, it not enough to feed her mouth, and if she has a motorbike, she would have no money to buy petrol to run it.

In northernmost Ha Giang Province just 30.26% of students complete the universal education programme.

In Cao Bang Province, the graduates total just 39.9%. Ethnic students accounted for only 18, 14 and 10% of all at primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools in the 2006-2007 academic year, says Ethnic Affairs Committee deputy chairman Ha Hung.

The price storm has been putting big difficulties on all Vietnamese families, sparing no one. However, students who live away from home are suffering most

Students who live away from home are suffering the most from the price storm. Many of them have to live on the money given to them by their parents every month. However, the sums of money have become smaller these days in the context of the galloping price increases.

While the government has asked schools not to increase fees, allowing our textbooks – which many experts agree are of poor quality – to become more expensive is the kind of policy contradiction that could sink our burgeoning economy.

The hike of 10 percent on the retail price of textbooks may seem insignificant to some well-off urban families, but for parents in rural and remote areas who have been hit hard by soaring market prices over the past half-year, it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.